Syllabus: Biology/Chemistry/Physics 482
Science in Context
Instructors:Drs. Laura M. Barden-Gabbei, John Hartman, and James Rabchuk
Office:374 Waggoner Hall; 430A Currens Hall; 316A Currens Hall
Phone:298-1679; 298-2261; 298-2577
E-mail:; ;
Class:Section 1: T 6pm-9pm; Meeting place will vary – see posting.
(3 credit hours)
Office Hours:L. M. Barden-Gabbei: Tues: 2-4pm; Wed: 1:30-3:30 pm; Fri: 10-11am
J. W. Hartman: MWF 4-5 pm; TR 1-2 pm
J. A. Rabchuk: MWF 1-2 pm; R 9-10 am
COURSE OVERVIEW
Interdisciplinary course designed to help science majors pursuing secondary teacher certification meet the state and national standards. Students will explore science as inquiry, the unifying principles of science, and the role of social contexts and ethics in science. WID – Writing instruction in the discipline
COURSE GOALS
This course is designed to serve science majors pursuing secondary certification by helping them to gain and demonstrate competencies required of them by the state and national standards for science educators. Students will be expected to understand the nature of science as inquiry, a process of gaining knowledge about the world, rather than as a body of known facts about the world. Students will also be expected to place scientific inquiry in the context of past scientific achievements, society's expectations of technological advancement and demands for respect toward its institutions and ethics.
The major course goal is to provide the preservice science teacher with appropriate experiences for initial growth as a professional science educator.
As the result of the course, the student will gain experiences in:
1.scientific inquiry including designing experiments, acquiring and analyzing data, and writing scientific papers based upon that research;
2.technological design and the practices of science;
3.determining the implications of science, technology, and society; and
4.examining unifying principles and concepts across all the sciences.
TEXTBOOKS (Required)
Hatton, J. & Plouffe, P. B. (1997). Science and Its Ways of Knowing. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Rutherford, F. J. & Ahlgren, A. (1989). Science for All Americans. OxfordUniversity Press: New York, NY.
Trefil, J. & Hazen, R. M. (2004). The Sciences: An Integrated Approach (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ.
Trefil, J. & Hazen, R. M. (2004). The Sciences: An Integrated Approach Study Guide (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ.
TEXTBOOKS (Optional)
Laboratory Manager’s Professional Reference. (No Date). Holt, Rinehart, & Winston: Austin, TX.
National Research Council (1996). Science for All Americans. NationalAcademy Press: Washington, D. C.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. (5th Ed.). (2001). American Psychological Assoication: Washington, D. C.
COURSE POLICIES
Attendance/Conduct: This is a professional course and as such you are expected to be present and on time for each class session. In order for this class to be productive for all, everyone is expected to participate and be respectful of others and their ideas. Class attendance will be recorded. Just as you would expect to lose salary or benefits for excessive tardies or absences by a school district, you can expect to lose credit for excessive absences or tardies in this course. Students with more than one unexcused absence or two tardies can expect their professional development grade to drop by 50% for the first additional absence or tardy and 100% for a second additional absence or tardy. Additional unexcused absences or tardies will result in a failing grade for the course. Excused absences include only those acknowledged by a health professional, BeuHealthCenter, or the Office of Student Personnel Services.
Assignments: You are expected to submit all assignments in final form on the specified due dates. All work is to be typed and is to follow the accepted rules of English grammar and style (use the APA manual for your guide). Any extended prose should be double-spaced (e.g. student lab reports). If you use a computer, the font should be no smaller than that used here. The final product should be printed on a letter quality printer. Most assignments are projects and will require you to appropriately budget your time. Waiting to begin projects until a week or two before they are due will generally result in poorer quality work and possibly incomplete work. Submitting work late will result in a lowered grade (1 day late reduce by one letter grade, an additional letter grade for each 2 days thereafter).
Students with Disabilities: Any student who has the need for special accommodations is encouraged to discuss this with the instructor as soon as possible.
Academic Dishonesty
The faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences ascribes to a definition of plagiarism as expressed by V. E. McMillan in Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences (Bedford/St.Martin’s Press, New York, pg 16)
“Plagiarism is the theft of someone else’s words, work, or ideas. It includes such acts as (1) turning in a friend’s paper and saying it is yours; (2) using another person’s data or ideas without acknowledgement; (3) copying an author’s exact words and putting them in your paper without quotation marks; and (4) using wording that is very similar to that of the original source but passing it off as entirely your own even while acknowledging the source.”
This includes information in textbooks or laboratory manuals, honors and masters theses, all writing assignments, and images. The faculty of the Department attempt to monitor student writing assignments (essay exams, papers, laboratory reports, and other writing assignments or exercises) for incidence of plagiarism. If plagiarism is found, the faculty will discuss the situation with the student and indicate to the student the penalty for this academic dishonesty. Potential penalties include those cited in the academic dishonesty section of the WIU web page,
COURSE ACTIVITIES AND EVALUATION
Below are general descriptions of course requirements. More detailed explanations of most assignments will be provided through the semester.
1.Project 1: Open-ended Lab
This is a semester-long project in which you will be designing, carrying out, and presenting the results of your own experiment. To begin this project, you will be required to complete a literature review for the topic chosen. After completing the literature review, you will develop a research proposal describing the goals and techniques employed for your investigation. An example project topic would be to consider the following question, “What are the biotic and abiotic effects of the use of road salt?” This topic is quite broad and allows for the consideration of many biological and physical viewpoints. Therefore, the first priority will be to narrow the topic to a manageable amount of information before conducting the literature review. Past projects focusing strictly on biotic factors have included: What are the effects of road salt on road side plants; what are the effects of road salt on macro-invertebrates along the road side; and what are the effects of different types of road salt on the survival of earthworms. Your project will be expected to include aspects of both biotic and abiotic effects of road salt. After completing the literature review, you will then use what you have learned to devise an experiment that is testable. You will determine the methods and techniques you will use and the equipment you will need. The initial and final proposals will include your literature reviews.
After all proposals are submitted, you will be grouped with others who have similar interests to develop a final proposal for the project you will perform. Before beginning work on your proposal, it must be approved by the instructors and proper safety guidelines put in place. You will then work together in your team to carry out the experiment and analyze the data. At the end of the semester your team will submit both a written report, written in journal style following APA format, and an oral presentation using PowerPoint. [Lit Review: 10%; Proposal: 5%; Final Project: 15% of grade]
2.Project 2: Data Analysis Project
During this project you will be working with one or more partners analyzing data provided to you from a data bank (e.g. data on global warming or the ozone layer). The data analysis should result in your being able to provide scientific answers to specific questions regarding the topic. The questions may be supplied by the instructors, or developed by you in the course of carrying out the analysis. The actual topic and data bank sources will be provided at a later date. You will be working with other group members on the project, but will submit individual lab reports. [Lab Report: 15%]
3.Project 3: Data Acquisition Project
As with project 2, you will be working with one or more partners on a research project in which you will be analyzing data, but this time on data you collect. The instructors will provide the research topic and detail the experiments necessary to investigate the topic. For example, you might be given the following topic to investigate: Determine the effects of coal sulfur content on acid content in rainwater. The instructors will then provide you with techniques which you can use to investigate the topic, e.g. techniques to determine sulfur content in coal, acid content in rain, etc. Once you have been given the topic and procedures for appropriate techniques, you will be required to collect and analyze the data for your project. You will be working with other group members on the project but will submit individual lab reports. [Lab Report: 20%]
4.Responses to Readings
Throughout the semester you will be given reading assignments from your textbooks, the primary literature, scientific magazines, and the popular press. You will be required to provide written responses for many of those reading assignments as well as occasionally to discussions in class. In some cases the assignment will focus on your future teaching of the topic, in others on the concepts being presented. The focus of the assignment will be provided at the time the assignment is given. [20% of grade]
5.Professional Development
To gain the most out of this course, active involvement in class discussion and activities is necessary. This involves both participation during class time and participation in group activities that must occur outside class time. Professional development also includes your participation in the Science Education Conference held at WIU during the spring semester. (15% of grade)
Tentative Topic Outline and Assignment Due Dates
(Additional Reading Assignments to be Announced)
Syllabus subject to change
DateTopicHW/Due Dates[*]/Other Info
Jan.13Course Introduction & SyllabusReading: Ways (Part I pp 1-3 & 25-58) &
What is Science in ContextIntegrated (Ch. 1)
Alternative Conceptions, Scientific MethodBegin work on Projects 1 & 2
20Topic: Scientific Method & SafetyReading: (Integrated (Ch 18-19)
Work on Projects 1 & 2Continue work on Projects 1 & 2
27Topic: Earth Cycles & EcologyReading: Integrated (Ch. 3, 4)
Work on Project 2Continue work on Projects 1 & 2
Feb.03Topic: Heat & EnergyReading: Integrated (Ch 6 & 10)
Work on Project 2Continue work on Projects 1 & 2
10Topic: Light & ChemistryReading: Integrated (Ch 8 & 9)
Work on Project 2Work on Projects 1 & 2
17Topic: AtomsDue: Project 2
Currens 202Present Project 2Reading: None
Continue work on Projects 12
24Topic: Atoms (Colligative Properties) &Due: Preliminary Lit Rev & Prop Proj 1
Currens Quantum MechanicsReading: Integrated (Ch 5 & 11)
202Work on Project 3Work on Projects 1 & 3
Mar.02Discussion of Project 1Readings: Integrated (Ch 21 & 22)
CurrensTopic: Electricity & MagnetismContinue work on Projects 1 & 3
202Work on Project 3
09No Classes: Spring Break Week
16Discussion of Project 1 PlansDue: Final Lit Rev. & Prop Proj 1
Topic: Biomolecules & CellsReading: TBA
Work on Project 3Cont. work on Project 1 3
23Topic: Statistics & ModelingReading:All Americans (Ch 1-3)
Work on Project 3Continue work on Project 1 & 3
30Present Project 3Due: Project 3
Topic: Nature of Sci/Math/TechReading: All Americans (Ch 10-12)
Work on Proj. 1Continue work on Project 1
Apr.06Topic: Technology Use in ClassroomsReading: Ways (Part II pp 59-60; 67-75
Tillman Work on Project 1&81-106
301Continue work on Project 1
13Topic: Technology Use in Classrooms part IIDraft for Project 1 Due
Tlmn 301Work on Project 1Reading: Ways III
Continue work on Project 1
20Discuss Project DraftReading: None
Topic: Hist., Common Themes & Habits of MindContinue work on Project 1
Science and Ways of Knowing
Work on Project 1
27Topic: Alternative Curricula (NSTA SS & C)Continue work on Project 1
Science and Ways of Knowing
Course Wrap-Up
May04Final Exam: Project 1 PresentationProject 1 Due
Page 1
[*] Due dates subject to change with notice